Anonymous User wrote:Doing "excellent" work "efficiently" and "perfectly" doesn't sound coasting to me. And obviously it is easier said than done. Not to discredit that post but just a thought. Props to the poster above who billed under 1500 and survived for 2 years. That is awesome
The problem is that if you do mediocre work, it's unlikely you'll last more than a year being a low biller.
A lot of the advice on this thread is very good, so I'll just add my experience. I lasted about 4.5 years in litigation at a big firm with a reputation for sweatshopiness, and left well liked and of my own volition. I always met the minimum hours requirements, but never exceeded them by more than a handful of hours. There were a few keys to accomplishing this.
First, I turned down work a lot. This is something many people struggle with. They think that saying no to a crappy project--for example a partner coming to you on a Friday afternoon with a new assignment--will put you on some sort of shitlist. But so long as you generally do solid work, meet deadlines, and make hours minimums, you should have banked enough goodwill and respect to say no. And billing above minimums is generally a losing idea unless you are gunning for partner. Sure, you can make some extra money at bonus time, but the dollars per hour is too low to make it worthwhile. And for me, personally, when my hours approached or exceeded 200 a month I became much unhappier with my job.
Second, and this is closely related to my first point, learn to recognize bad projects. If you are starting out at a firm, take a more senior associate to lunch or happy hour early on and ask about the bad partners in the office and any regular clients that suck to work for. Then avoid those people and cases as if your job depends on it--because it might. I know a number of people that were smarter and harder working that I was, but they didn't last at the firm because they got on bad cases with bad people.
Third, I was as efficient as possible while in the office and billed the vast majority of my hours during normal business hours. Again, many associates will waste time during the day browsing the internet, having long talks with colleagues, regular lunches out, etc. The sad truth of biglaw is: every hour you don't bill during the day is an hour you need to make up at night or on the weekend. Because I was efficient, I rarely worked nights and weekends (excluding trials and legit emergencies).
Fourth, I didn't concern myself with bogus deadlines. Someone else made this point earlier, and it's completely true. If something is due to a client or there's a court deadline, then absolutely meet it. But a lot of the times there are deadlines that are bullshit. Someone will ask to see a draft of a motion or memo 2 weeks before the real deadline, then sit on it for days or weeks. All you need to do is send an email a day or two ahead of time and ask for an extension. In these situations you don't take a hit by taking longer to turn it in, because it doesn't matter. And in taking longer you have a continuing excuse to turn down other work--see first point, above.
Fifth, try not to be the first person to respond to emails asking for volunteers. If you get an email asking for someone to step up to do something, and you don't want to do it, don't respond right away. Nine times out of ten, someone else will jump in any volunteer because biglaw is full of overachievers. And this saves you from having to say no or make up an excuse.